Ben Tennyson
Benjamin "Ben" Kirby Tennyson was a normal ten-year-old kid until he found the Omnitrix, a powerful watch-like device that allowed him to turn into ten different aliens. Though initially immature and clumsy, he grew to be a true hero. By the time he was sixteen, he had become famous in not only his hometown of Bellwood, but on Earth and beyond. Ben has also been deputized by the Plumbers and gained more aliens as time progressed. In Mystery, Incorporeal, Ben obtains an honorary college degree from Friedkin University. Appearance Ben's physical appearance has changed throughout the series from a ten-year-old to a sixteen-year-old. However, he retains some recurring characteristics. He has shaggy brown hair, green eyes, pale skin, and he's quite skinny for his age, though he shows a lot of muscle definition due to being athletic. When he was 5, as revealed in a flashback of how he first met his future frenemy Mr. Baumann, Ben wore green overalls with a white shirt underneath it. White numbers saying "5 1/2" where on a black square in front of his overalls. In the original series and Omniverse flashbacks, Ben's usual clothes consists of a black-striped, white shirt with short sleeves, green pants and black and white shoes with black stripes. Ben wears the prototype Omnitrix on his left wrist. In Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, Ben wears a black shirt, blue pants and a green jacket with white stripes and the number 10 on it, and black shoes. Ben wears the prototype Omnitrix in Alien Force and the Ultimatrix in Ultimate Alien on his left wrist. In Omniverse, Ben wears a shirt which is black and has a green stripe in the middle with a white 10 and green stripes on the sides of his shirt. He wears brown pants with pockets at the knees and green and white shoes. He later gains a white hooded jacket with green stripes on both arms and a green number 10 on the right side. He wears the Omnitrix on his left wrist. Personality Ben is initially portrayed as a cocky, arrogant, and immature boy who tends to make jokes, even when fighting enemies. He easily gets full of himself and enjoys attention from others. This attitude can sometimes make him look obnoxious or dumb, often resulting in criticisms from Gwen later Kevin and a few others. It also causes several conflicts between him and Azmuth. These traits, however, as hinted in The Forge of Creation, stem from Ben's attempts to hide his own fear about the situation. Even so, he's matured since the first series and although he can be goofy, he's also capable of great leadership skills and tends to get serious when the situation requires it. Despite his immaturity, Ben is actually good-hearted, and his actions are motivated above all by a strong and sincere will to help others in need. He's shown to deeply care for other's lives, and would choose to save people by himself, even when he dislikes them. This causes him to have a strong dislike for sacrifices or life compromises and occasionally acts against reason. When meeting an enemy in trouble, he'll usually attempt to help them rather than win the hard way. While this somehow overly idealistic nature is often criticized by Azmuth, most characters usually consider it as Ben's most important quality. Professor Paradox once even stated that he had the gift to make the right choices at the right moments. When he sees people hurt by his fault or because of his failures, Ben tends to get mad and acts much more violent and aggressive than he usually does. Also, when Kevin mutated again, Ben became willing to kill Ultimate Kevin by any means necessary. He began acting ruthless, aggressive, pessimistic, cold-hearted, nasty, and even ready to fight Gwen as Way Big when she attempted to stop him. During the episode, Ben confesses to Max he feels guilty for letting fame get into his head, and claims that he is trying to act more mature for once. Finally, in The Purge, when the Forever Knights are holding a large group of aliens hostage (and have killed some aliens already), Ben threatens to hunt the Forever Knights down if they don't let the aliens go. Though often stated to be silly or unintelligent because of his immaturity, Ben is actually shown to be cunning and resourceful when needed, usually showing good adaptation skills when the Omnitrix doesn't provide him with the alien he wanted. When he occasionally put his immaturity aside, he's shown to be a responsible leader as well as a very competent fighter. Although Ben inherited his grandmother Verdona's spirit, sense of humor, and overconfidence, he also inherited his Max's determination, and adventurous and self-sacrificing attitude. In Omniverse, Ben thinks of himself as more of a superhero than a Plumber. He often tells Rook that he is a superhero and not a cop. He's also gotten slightly more cocky, but still retains his selfless and heroic nature. Powers and Abilities Ben has been trained in hand-to-hand combat by black belt Gwen, Max, as well as various years fighting aliens, and received a basic Plumber training. He proved to be quite skilled in basic hand-to-hand combat as well armed and unarmed combat, being able to easily dodge shots from Manny's blasters and proceed to disarm him while in human form in Above and Beyond. Ben was able to hold his own against Pierce, and Max hinted that Ben was a highly skilled fighter, even as a human in Voided. Another hint of his exceptional hand-to-hand skill is when he succeeded in the Plumbers' Academy with a 95 out of a 100. He is also shown to be a crafty fighter and actually uses freestyle fighting. It's evident that Ben is smart in some respects, possessing an above average intelligence. It was even stated by Gwen that he really isn't working up to his potential at school. He also has fairly moderate grades. Physics and Chemistry are his toughest subjects, yet he still maintains a B+ average. In Where the Magic Happens, it is shown that Ben has a good memory, as he was perfectly capable of remembering and writing down the mystic rune-like symbols for entering the inter-dimensional realm of Ledgerdomain with just one glance from a distance. He was able to write the runes down. Ben can also skillfully wield tools and weapons in either hand, in human or alien form. Equipment Ben is the wielder of the Omnitrix (formerly the Ultimatrix and Omnitrix (Original, which gave him the power to modify his own genetic code in order to turn into various alien creatures. Traditionally, he could only transform into ten aliens at the beginning of both the original series and Alien Force, but he later gains additional forms by either unlocking them or by scanning the DNA of aliens he meets. When transforming into an alien, Ben gets all the creature's features, including its appearance, voice, all of its unique and special abilities and powers, strengths and weaknesses. Though he mostly retains his personality, there are some cases where the transformation causes change in it, like with Rath and Jury Rigg. Though he usually uses his alien forms to fight, he can impersonate aliens as he did with Water Hazard to convince P'andor to go home, and though he was unsuccessful at convincing him, P'andor believed him to be Bivalvan. In addition to transforming into aliens, the Ultimatrix included what is referred as an "evolutionary function," that allowed Ben to evolve his alien forms in order to get upgraded versions of them, referred to as Ultimate Forms. In addition to the primary transformations and evolutionary function, the Omnitrixes and Ultimatrix can both be used for various purposes. Both have a built in Universal Translator that allows Ben to communicate with most aliens that don't speak English. The prototype Omnitrix displayed the ability to manipulate and repair genetic damage, a function he used to cure DNAliens and save the Highbreed from extinction. Azmuth also mentioned that Ben could use the prototype Omnitrix to bring back to life any species stored on Primus. The Omnitrix also has a failsafe to help prevent Ben from dying. If Ben is in mortal danger and the Omnitrix is in recharge mode, it will automatically go into active mode. Weaknesses Whenever the Omnitrix times out, Ben is left powerless until he either dodges or switches to a new alien form. In addition to gaining the selected alien's powers, he gains its weaknesses. Additionally, at times the natural biological behavior of certain aliens can override Ben's behavior, such as Big Chill's reproductive phase or Swampfire's blossoming process. Furthermore, any illness Ben is experiencing in his human form will also be affect his alien forms. Whenever Ben unlocks a new alien form, he is at a disadvantage of not knowing its abilities and weaknesses until he gains experience with using the new alien. Despite his experience in using the Omnitrixes and Ultimatrix, Ben still does not know every function of them. Due to his inquisitive nature and impatience, he has accidentally unlocked new functions such as the Master Control and the randomizer, which can at times do more harm than good. Though the current Omnitrix is designed to work only for him, Ben still has not mastered it. According to Azmuth, Ben may get the Master Control on his 18th birthday. In For a Few Brains More, it is revealed that the Omnitrix does not mistransform, but rather it is due to Ben hitting the Omnitrix too hard, thereby causing the time-out function to select another alien at random. Ben has an allergy to peanuts and has a fear of peacocks. He also has coulrophobia, the fear of clowns. Ben's left eye twitches whenever he tells a lie, but only Kevin appears to notice this. Ben appears to have a short attention span at times, and more often than not it can get him into trouble. Though he has matured substantially since receiving the original Omnitrix, he is still a teenager with much to learn and is prone to irrational impulses and recklessness. Video Games Ben appears in every Ben 10 video game (playable) because he is the main character of the Ben 10 series. Ben is also seen in the crossover Video game Punch Time Explosion and Explosion XL. Ben 10: Protector of Earth While Ben is sleeping at the Grand Canyon, Vilgax extracts DNA of the Omnitrix. Ben travels about United States to retrieve all parts of the Omnitrix. Ben starts with Heatblast and Four Arms. But later obtains XLR8, Cannonbolt, Wildvine and Perk Upchuck (DS if player cheats). Later, he unlocks the Master Control. Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction|Ben 10: Cosmic Destruction Ben confronts a new villain, Evil Way Big. To defeat him, Ben looks for parts of the Potis Altiare's located in places around the world. In The Final Battle with Evil Way Big, Ben puts the Potis Altiare together and uses it as Way Big. Later during the Battle, Way Big uses a very powerful cosmic ray and sends Evil Way Big to space. Punch Time Explosion and XL Punch Time Explosion Ben hunts down Vilgax, the latter conquers Chowder's Universe. Ben later teams up with other cartoon network characters to hunt down Vilgax throughout other universes. He is the first usable character. *Swampfire (standard attack) *Big Chill (up/extra jump attack) *AmpFibian (down attack) *Humungousaur (side attack) *Ultimate Humungousaur (Punch Time Explosion) Punch Time Explosion In this game, nothing is much different in the story line. However, young Ben Tennyson is available as a playable character, even though he does not appear in the story line. Young Ben doesn't appear in the story line, but is also playable. He costs 1500, which is more than the average character, making him more rare. *Heatblast (up/extra jump attack) *XLR8 (side attack) *Cannonbolt (down attack) *Wildvine (standard attack) *Four Arms (Punch Time Explosion) Etymology Benjamin is a name from the Hebrew name בִּנְיָמִין (Binyamin) which means "son of the south" or "son of the right hand" going back into the Tanakh (called the Hebrew Bible by Christian scholars), a name of one of the sons of Jacob. His name, "Ben," is to create a rhyming effect between his first name and the number Ten. His middle name, Kirby, was named as reference to comic book artist Jack Kirby, according to Derrick J. Wyatt. His last name, Tennyson, meaning the Son of Tenny. The "Ten'''ny" part is a reference to the series name, "Ben '''Ten".